'This must be stopped!'
'Shame added to suffering'
Dmitry Muratov, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, expressed his shame in an online video.
"We are suffering," said Muratov. "Our country, on the orders of President Putin, has started a war against Ukraine. And nobody can stop it. Therefore, to our suffering is added shame."
In a highly symbolic move, the founders of the "Immortal Regiment," an organization dear to the Kremlin because it is responsible for preserving the memory of the dead of World War II, called on the Putin "to cease fire," describing the use of force as "inhuman."
Moscow's Garage museum of contemporary art, founded by Kremlin-linked oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, announced it would close on Saturday, refusing to "maintain the illusion of normality."
Also two communist MPs who voted for the recognition of the independence of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, have denounced the invasion of Russia's neighbor.
"I voted for peace, not for war. I voted for Russia to be a shield [for the separatists]... not for Kyiv to be bombed," wrote MP Mikhail Matveyev.
Addressing the celebrities and "thousands and thousands" of anonymous Russians denouncing the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked them and asked them to stop those who "lie to the whole world."
Putin has described Zelensky and his government as "terrorists" and "a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis," urging the country's military to topple him.
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